Introduction To Homegrown Goodness

Howdy folks, I just wanted to take a second to introduce myself, my business, my work, and why this blog exists.


First and foremost, my Name is Alan Reed Bishop and I guess you could say I am a "Truck/Market" farmer by career along with a seeds man, a plants man and a worm rancher, occasionally I like to dabble in plant breeding though too. I'm 23 years old and I live in Southern Indiana, about 30 Miles north of Louisville KY in a small town called Pekin. I've been farming off and on all of my life, starting back with my grandparents and my parents raising white Burley tobacco, some of my fondest memories are from those days, for a while I strayed into the world of music but found my muse calling back to me in the form of the soil and the food-plants which sustain us all so I started a new business called Bishop's Homegrown!

Bishop's Homegrown has been operating now for 3 years, we provide high quality, rare heirloom and exclusively bred seedlings to the community at large every year from our greenhouses and we raise close to 24 acres of produce. I've made it my life's goal to educate and inform market patrons of what truly healthy and nutritious vegetables are and if they are further interested I make it my job to inform them on how to grown a self-sustainable crop of such vegetables.

Many of my offerings at market and here at the farm stand are rare and hard to find and as of recently, due to my new breeding program, some can't be found anywhere else! Many of these offerings contain a greater degree of nutrition than those of "conventional" vegetables. There is very little that I ever do that isn't based on organic methods and nothing that I do that isn't based on completely Natural observation of the world in which my plants live, breed, and re-produce.

If you come to visit one of our farm stands on an average day you will see every color of the rainbow in every type of produce you can think of and that's because we go out of our way to find the rarest and most nutritional foods we can find, just remember sometimes color is more than just novelty, sometimes it's an expression of a particular amino acid or enzyme which can provide you with added nutrition you may not find in conventional types of produce.

Recently I implemented a plant breeding program based on the growing conditions and "organic" culture needs of Southern Indiana, we call the program Hip-Gnosis seed development we also collect and propagate valuable germplasm from time tested local, regional, and heirlooms from all over the world and offer them to gardeners as the Blue River Seed Improvement Project (named after the river which flows through our hometown).

This Page will occasionally be updated with news regarding what is going on at the farm, when you can visit, what we will have available at the farm and at market and for those friends of mine who are interested in The Blue River Seed Improvement Project at the Hip-Gnosis seed development we will be releasing links to our new 2007 Research Journals which are our notes on seed development, plant research, "organic" though not certified research and more, please bear with us as we learn, we don't claim to always be 100% right and we definitely didn't go to college to learn this stuff, just good old passed down knowledge and new development.

Until next time, feel free to check out our pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bishopshomegrown

There are pics up from early spring 2007 in the fields.
Our "Worm House" where we raise composting/fishing bait red worms.
And our current Fall/Winter greenhouse tomato crops.

Also be sure to check out our Gardening/Farming/Homesteading forums at:
http://alanbishop.proboards60.com/

A great, homegrown site with lots of good folks, you can also access the Blue River Seed Improvement Project/Hip-Gnosis Seed Development Research Seed bank Where you can find all of our newest seed introductions.

And if you have any questions you can reach us at:
bishopshomegrown@gmail.com

Or check out our myspace:
www.myspace.com/bishopshomegrown

Stay tuned, the Research Journal will be coming soon!

Your Friend,
Alan Reed Bishop!